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Filter Coffee, Not People

What does it say about a nation when it creates ever more restrictive and severe rules about who may cross its borders? The profound hypocrisy that is playing out on our borders is inhumane and intolerable.

At our southwest border, families seeking refuge from life-threatening violence are wrenched apart. Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) shelters are filling with children of all ages, some who traveled alone to the US, but increasing numbers who were separated from parents at the border. For years, ORR shelters held primarily teenagers who were prepared for their solo journeys – understanding and accepting the risks to find a safe home in America. In the past six weeks, the ORR shelters have rapidly filled with children of all ages, thousands of whom arrived at the U.S. border with a parent. The current policy is to separate children from their parents seeking to apply for asylum when they enter the U.S. without legal documentation. Hundreds of these children are under the age of 13, many are under the age of 2.

Current policy prohibits shelter staff from hugging or holding the children to soothe and comfort them in their anguish and distress. Comforting a child is the most natural of human instincts. It is truly unfathomable that there would be a policy prohibiting this.

Pediatricians are speaking out about the resulting toxic stress of this traumatic forced separation from their parents upon arrival in the U.S. The likely irreparable harm includes impact on brain development and other long term medical and emotional issues. In ignoring this expert prognosis, we are setting these children up for a lifetime fraught with pain.

No federal law requires family separation. The policy is part of the Justice Department’s crackdown on immigration.

Speaking of the justice, the Supreme Court recently heard oral argument in the case of Trump v. Hawaii, focused on the constitutionality of the third executive order. That ‘presidential proclamation’ restricted travel to the U.S. by citizens of 7 countries, 6 of them predominantly Muslim. Lest we forget, the travel ban has been in effect since early December, preventing (with some limited exceptions) immigrants, refugees and visa holders from Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen from entering the U.S. The Court’s decision is expected later this month and will likely have expansive implications for the use of executive power. We need to be ready for this.

In this immigration maelstrom, it is of the utmost importance to continue to speak out and to celebrate boldly our collective diversity. Wednesday is World Refugee Day! At CIRI, we will have our 8th annual World Refugee Day celebration in Bridgeport, bringing together a splendid community rich in its blending of culture, language, traditions. At CIRI, we applaud the strength and commitment of our Connecticut communities in celebrating this diversity.

Please join us in thanking Source Coffeehouse whose tagline is “Sharing coffee is how we love our neighbors.” This week, in honor of World Refugee Day, Source will donate 10% of their Ethiopian brewed coffee sales to CIRI! Join us in thanking them by enjoying a coffee at Source, where the sign on their wall says: Filter coffee, not people.

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Author: CIRI President and CEO, Claudia Connor has over twenty-five years of program management, advocacy, and legal and strategic leadership experience in the non-profit sector in the United States, Africa and Southeast Asia.